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British mother killed on Peking to Paris classic car rally

Emma WIlkinson, 46, had been driving with her partner Peter Davies in the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge, when their 1970 Chevrolet was hit by an oncoming car on a highway in Tyumen, east of Moscow.

The couple had been on day 16 of the 7,500mile rally, when an oncoming car swerved into their lane, killing Miss WIlkinson, a former company director from Kettering, instantly.

Mr Davies, the managing director of a property firm, was taken to hospital with minor injuries.

The driver in the other car had fallen asleep at the wheel and was also killed, along with a two-month-old baby, according to reports. Russian police said they were investigating the circumstances of the incident.

Miss Wilkinson’s brothers Robert and Mark Wilkinson had also been competing and were a few miles ahead when her car crashed.

Philip Young, the director of Endurance Rally Association, which is organising the rally, yesterday described Miss Wilkinson as an “bright and outgoing woman” who had a passion for driving.

He said: “I spent a lot of time with her in the last few weeks, she was very outgoing, lively, sociable person who got on with everyone. She was a very competent driver who had a fantastic sense of humour.

“This could have happened anywhere, it could have happened on a motorway in England - this was a road accident not a motor sports accident. This is the tragedy of it, she was just ambling down to a lunch stop not driving on a death-defying mountain road.”

The car which Emma Wilkinson was in at the time of the accident (PA)

Race organisers said the rally would continue, although today's time trial has been cancelled.

Michelle Jana Chan, a fellow British driver competing, said: "I had first met Emma six months ago at a rally training weekend in Oxfordshire. She and Peter had told us about plans for a blow-up jacuzzi in the back of their Chevrolet pick-up. They were full of fun and laughter. I remember thinking at the time that their car was destined to be the heart and soul of the party.

“There are mixed feelings among competitors but an overwhelmingly sentiment to push on. We use the old adage: ‘Emma would have wanted that’ – yet, of course, we will never know if that is true.”

Around 96 cars left the starting point at the Great Wall of China on May 28 for the 33-day challenge.

With long stretches of desert and mountain roads, the classic car rally is known as one of the toughest as well as longest rallies of its kind.

In one of her last updates on her Facebook page, Miss WIlkinson wrote: “Today we did 650 km on the most boring flat road with dull scenery.

“We lost our back axle 6 days ago; it took a whole day to weld it back together in a back street garage, never again will I ever moan about an MOT taking an hour! We then had an epic two day catch up where we had to drive three days in two.”

A fellow competitor had written on Twitter just hours earlier of the dangerous driving on the route from Omsk to Tyumen.

“Road tripping again on our way to Tyumen, Russia... trucks everywhere with no proper overtaking lane.”

A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokeswoman said: "We are aware of the death of a British national in Russia on 12 June.

"We stand ready to provide consular assistance to the family at this difficult time."